Blue & Gold Illustrated: America's Foremost Authority on Notre Dame Football
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BY LOU SOMOGYI O ver the last three recruiting cycles from 2013-15, only eight college football programs have been ranked in the top 12 each year by Rivals.com. Notre Dame is one, joining the last two national champs in Ohio State (2014) and Florida State (2013), and the esteemed Southeastern Conference quintet of Alabama, Auburn, Georgia, LSU and Texas A&M. This year's 24-man haul once again was classified among the top dozen col- lectively, with a high mark of No. 6 (Scout. com) and no ranking lower than No. 13. By such a standard on paper, head coach Brian Kelly's Fight- ing Irish should be at least competitive against the aforementioned top-tier re- cruiting juggernauts. It showed in 2014 when Notre Dame played two of them. It lost 31-27 at Florida State Oct. 18 when an Irish touchdown in the fi- nal seconds was nullified because of a controversial offensive interference ruling on a pick play. Then Dec. 30 in the Music City Bowl, the reeling Irish, which had lost four straight, defeated LSU 31-28. The problem has been one too many off Saturdays that have led to upsets, from the one at Pittsburgh in 2013 to the back-to-back home defeats this past November to Northwestern and Lou- isville. In Kelly's six recruiting campaigns at Notre Dame, he and his staff have as- sembled a relatively consistent ranking on Rivals.com of 11.7, with an average star rating of 3.53 (on a scale of 1.0 to 5.0). The zenith under Kelly came in 2013, when the Irish inked a 24-man haul that was rated No. 3 with an average star rating of 3.92. That current group is the centerpiece as juniors in 2015 with players such as leading rusher Tarean Folston, top receiver Will Fuller, leading tackler Jaylon Smith and top corner Cole Luke. The nadir came in 2012, when the Irish were ranked No. 20 with a group of only 16 (the cur- rent seniors led by left tackle Ronnie Stanley and defensive tackle Sheldon Day) that had an average star rating of 3.53. This year's 24-man group is right in between with a No. 11 ranking and an average star rating of 3.54. It doesn't feature any game-changing five stars but was strong across the board with 13 four-star players and 11 others with three stars. The cumulative effect of five con- secutive quality classes — including the 2011 group that will likely have at least a half-dozen fifth-year seniors — is what has Kelly optimistic about an infrastructure being strong enough to rank among the top five to top 10 again, similar to the 12-1 campaign in 2012. "We're at that level of competing with anybody in the country and beat- ing them with the players that we have," Kelly said. "WE'RE AT THAT LEVEL OF COMPETING WITH ANYBODY IN THE COUNTRY AND BEAT- ING THEM WITH THE PLAYERS THAT WE HAVE." HEAD COACH BRIAN KELLY